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The Best Gateway Beer Brewer is…

From a recent post contemplating the relationship between gateway beers and the ‘epiphany beer’ I got to thinking. (Unusual, I know.)

I was trying to think of the one beer brewer, one singular label, that throughout their entire lineup, single-handedly represented the best possibility of acting as a ‘gateway beer’ and perhaps even simultaneously causing a beer epiphany for someone ready for it.

Does that brewer exist? Not only do I say YES, but in bold caps!

Now, hold on to your hats, because I’m going to let you in on a secret. I’m no beer expert. (I know, I know.) But, I have had one or two fine beers over the last few years, and I have some opinions on this matter, so hear me out. I think it makes a lot of sense.

OK, so lets say you have a pal who is a mostly macro-beer drinker, but like me has had a gateway beer experience. A Guinness, maybe a Blue Moon, something like that. They’re open to new beer suggestions, but don’t know what to do! Where to start! Ahhhhhhhh!

Some will never get past Guinness or Blue Moon. The gateway beer has become a trap of sorts. Some even revert to their old Bud Lite Lime habits, or they decompensate further by resorting to wine coolers. That’s just not right. We can help.

What would you tell them? Here’s what I would do, now that I’ve thought it through.

I’d tell them to find any beer bottle with the Samuel Smith label, and buy it!

Yes, the Sam Smith labels look like a fuddy-duddy corpse from the 1700’s was reanimated to design them, and no, there aren’t pictures of androgynous gargoyles driving a truck through the eyesocket of a flaming skull, all while eating a tarantula and fighting a biker grandmother on the label. No. Its plain. Its classy. Its likely to be missed on the shelf, but LOOK for it dammit! Its worth the effort!

If they really wanted a nice sampler of beer styles, I’d make this list and send them merrily along. Hopefully, its a place that lets you ‘build your own’ six pack, because with the list below you’re good-to-go!

Sam Smith Organic Lager – Why not? Perhaps not the pinnacle of the style, but good enough to show what a good lager can be.

I think most beer nerds would agree that Samuel Smith makes some fine beer, and most would agree that the list above would make a decent starter list for someone looking to grow and try excellent examples of different beer styles.

While excellent indeed, none of the beers are extreme. None of them will blow your mind with spices and hops and bitterness, but they will impress for how good they are in an almost elemental way. Certainly that’s true for the Stout, Porter and India Pale Ale. Heck, even their Imperial Stout is an excellent, excellent example of the style, I just didn’t include it in the list for the new guy because, well, he’s new.

So there you go. More than any other brand in the universe, without a doubt, Samuel Smith beers should be the gateway beer brand of choice, and as a result could be possibly responsible for more beer epiphany experiences than anyone else!

What think you? Is there a better brand than Sam Smith to spread good beer to the washed, unwashed, and partially-washed masses?

Enlightening post. Never thought of these guys in that way. Like Brian, I usually go to Sam Adams for craft beer noobs. I’ve used Saranac as well on occasion. I have once gotten the sampler 3 pack with the souvenir glass as a secret santa present and the nut brown got the recipient into darker beers.

The story goes that, on leaving school as a callow teenager, a young Michael Jackson started work at the Tadcaster Herald as a ‘cub’ reporter. At lunchtime on his first day his sub-editor took him next door to the local pub. Which just happened to be the ‘brewery tap’ at Sam Smiths brewery. It was then and there that Michael experience his first beer and the rest, as we know, is history.

What’s even nicer for us Brits is that that here in Blighty, ‘Sammy Smiths’ have their own chain of pubs.

They’re deliberately low-key, old-school, no TV screens showing sports, no video games, no piped music, just good old-fashioned boozers. And some of them are veritable temples, ‘The Cock’ on Great Portland Street, ‘The Princess Louise’ on Holborn or the ‘Cittye of York’ on Chancery Lane – all in London are works of art; most with original Victorian tiled walls and etched and engraved mirrors and windows.

And because ‘Sammy Smiths’ own the pubs, and only stock their own brand stuff they’re cheap – a Sam Smiths pub in central Manchester (only yards from some chic and expensive fashion stores) sells Old Brewery Bitter for just £1.85 a pint – that’s less than three bucks, for a full 20oz pint of fine ale.

I posted a record here at The Brewclub of a Sammy Smiths pub crawl back in June 2010.

Glad to get some supportive nods from some enlightened folks! Brian and Anthony mentioned Sam Adams, and when I penned this silly script there was definitely a battle as to which would prevail.

I think I gave Sam Smith the nod because every time I have one of their beers I find myself taking a pause after the first few sips and consciously appreciate the experience. That usually doesn’t happen for me with Sam Adams.

A personal thing, yes, but something had to tip the scales one way or another!

Sam Smith is indeed good, hard to go wrong with them. But not always easy to find in some locales and can be pricey. If I were going to suggest to someone to “try anything from this brewer”: then Sam Adams has such a wide variety it would be hard to go too wrong with them. I don’t think they’re necessarily the best, but they have all of the common styles. I would also suggest anything from my personal favorite Highland Brewing!